A braking system is the most important system in a vehicle. The braking system can exert thousands of pounds of pressure on the brakes. In the braking system are disc brakes. The disc brakes use a clamping action to produce friction between a rotor and brake pads mounted in a caliper attached to a suspension member. The vehicle slows down due to the friction between the pads and the rotor.
A rotor is a round metal disc which rotates with a wheel of a vehicle and, in order to generate braking power, force is applied to the rotor from the brake pads. The friction force against the rotor stops the wheel from spinning and, therefore, stops the vehicle. Conventionally, a brake disc is one combined piece and very laborious to replace.
In today's commercial vehicle market, there are many problems with rotors having a short life span that wear out regularly due to the tremendous amount of force applied to the rotor when the vehicle is braking, especially the amount of force a commercial vehicle applies on the rotor. Therefore, the rotor needs to be replaced frequently.
Conventionally, a rotor is a one-piece design for a more simple and inexpensive method of manufacturing. However, replacing a rotor, which becomes necessary after the contact surfaces exhibit too much wear from the pads, includes complete disassembly of the wheel hub and disc brake assembly. The rotor for a commercial truck is extremely heavy and usually takes more than one person or machine to remove and replace, which is very time consuming and inefficient.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,864,935, a two piece rotor is disclosed in order to conveniently replace the brake disc after wear on to a wheel hub. However, this design creates multiple pieces and requires multiple fasteners, which in turn requires more assembly and disassembly steps. The prior art rotor also requires that the entire rotor be removed from the wheel hub to replace the disc.
Accordingly, it is beneficial to have a rotor that will be replaced less frequently, in a more simplified manner, with less assembly and disassembly without removing the wheel hub, and with less parts.